In April, our Embracing Everyone team met in Istanbul where we were warmly welcomed by Gulcin and the children and colleagues at her school.
We spent a lot of time in school where the children participated in many wonderful workshops. Pupils from the school were extremely friendly and were confident in saying hello and asking us some questions. They performed some fantastic songs and dances and it was wonderful to see such fantastic, brightly coloured costumes. It was interesting to see the school's 'Dream Room' and take part in some mindfulness activities.
Art and craft seemed to be important to the Turkish culture and we had the chance to have a go at Ebru (marbling), pottery, traditional Turkish calligraphy and glass art. We brought lots of nice things home with us to show people at school!
We took some trips out of school and visited some of Istanbul's interesting tourist attractions. The boat trip on the Bosphorus was wonderful and the guide explained so much about the massive city. It was a great experience to have the Asian continent on one side of the river and Europe on the other. The children had a fantastic time on the boat trip and enjoyed dancing to music with their friends.
We visited a Toy Museum which has a huge wooden giraffe and toy soldier outside and pupils and adults from the different countries noticed how toys from the past are similar in each country. The children took part in a really nice wooden toy workshop where they got to paint something wooden, related to buildings in each of the partner countries.
On the last day of the working week, we took a bus to a place called 'Permacamp'. This is somewhere that children who live in the very urban city of Istanbul can go and learn about nature, be outside, cook their own food and enjoy the outdoors. This place was fantastic and it was obvious how much the children enjoyed being there.
The staff from different countries enjoyed finding out more about the provision of Special Needs children in Turkey and we were able to listen to an inspirational lady with Cerebral Palsy who spoke about her passion for teaching children to accept the differences of others. She explained about the Reggio Emilia approach to education and how she has combined this with her disability to give children appropriate and important experiences.
We also visited a Special School which is for older children and were able to walk around and see what the students attending this school were learning. It was fantastic to see them engaging with classes that teach them about life skills, such as housekeeping, office work and, cooking and using computers for various purposes.
There is so much we could say about our visit to Istanbul,
but all in all, we had a superb week. We learned about education in Turkey, the practise of Special Educational Needs, we were warmly welcomed and looked after from the minute we arrived to when we left and were given lots of delicious food. We danced a lot and enjoyed the company of our Erasmus+ friends. Thank you!
